Nazi wine under the floorboards
How long should you store your wine before it becomes worth money?
Of course, it depends on the quality of the wine, but if you take good care of it, it can be worth a small fortune.
Hidden beneath the floorboards, a collection of wines has survived the Nazi regime, the Cold War and eager treasure hunters. Now, the wines, which are up to 150 years old, are being put up for sale, with an estimate of no less than 1.1 million euros.
The Czech castle of Becov Nad Teplou has for many years been in possession of a significant wine collection that was left to the Beaufort-Spontin family who lived in the castle, but had to flee at the end of World War II due to accusations of collaboration with the Nazis.
The Czech government took over the castle after the war, and back in 1985, there was a tip that the Beaufort-Spontin family had hired a private detective to track down the large amounts of valuables the family had hidden in the castle, in the hope of later being able to smuggle them out.
The Czech authorities embarked on their own treasure hunt at the castle, and under the floorboards they found the unique collection of rare vintage wines that had been hidden for decades, safe from marauding soldiers and, not least, the ravages of time.
Since then, the wine collection has been stored in the cellars under Becov Castle, but the high demand for expensive vintage wines in recent years has prompted the decision to have the wines evaluated and sold. The 133 bottles are mostly from between 1856 - 1899; a time when French wine was dominant on the market and several years before the ravages of the wine lice.
Rated by leading experts
It is not everyday that wines with so many years of aging are put up for sale. To assess the condition and quality of the wines, the Czech authorities called in two master sommeliers, as well as Greg Lambrecht, the man who invented Coravin - a system that, with a fine needle, allows you to take a sample of a wine without removing the cork and breaking the seal.
Using a special version of the Coravin tool, with a particularly thin needle, Lambrecht sampled 14 wines. The taste of the wines is described as "Extraordinary" and according to Lambrecht, they were literally the best wines he had ever tasted.
Among the wines was a port wine from the 1850s, red wine from Corton Charlemagne vintage 1892 and several vintages of Chateau d'Yquem, including the only 3 remaining copies of vintage 1899 - a wine that alone is valued at around 80,000 euros.
The wines will be on sale later this year.
The wines will be on sale later this year.
How does wine survive for so long?
The fact that the wines have survived so long is due to the many years they have been left untouched, without external influences from light and heat. However, you don't need an entire castle to store your wines for many years - a wine refrigerator is the perfect way to store your expensive wines. A rule of thumb for whether the wine can become more valuable later is that it must be from a famous, preferably legendary producer, the wine must be from a good vintage and finally it must have received great ratings from renowned wine reviewers.
What do you think, which wines would you keep for the next 50-60 years, and would you sell or drink them when the time is right?